Marching Band...

...in other words, my entire summer life. For those of you that don't do it and hardly know if your school has one, here's my definition from my semi-dictionary (about a page and a half of exaggerated definitions):
Marching band- a.) a band that moves as one, in ranks (lines) of five or fewer (except the drum major, who sometimes marches backwards and conducts the music), and includes a wind section and a drum line. Each band can be defined by it's uniform, style, and director. There are high school marching bands, college marching bands, and professional marching bands. The 2 former take great pride in representing their schools when they perform.
b.) a popular entry in parades.
c.) an activity that school band students look forward to every summer.
d.) a group of people who are not allowed to like horses during parades because of the poop the horses are likely to leave behind on the route. (Marching bands do not like to get their leather marching shoes dirty.)
That last one's a bit extreme as we don't care too much, although it is a bother.
Marching band is a good way to occupy yourself during the summer. I had to make sure that I got to my high school at 8:00 (preferably a little before) every morning in June, for about 2 weeks in July, and most days in August. Also in August, we started learning our halftime show for homecoming. That was fun, except that we were out in the sun for 4 hours a day and I got quite sunburnt. But it was worth it in the end, so now we know for sure that we won't mess up at homecoming when the whole school's watching!
I REALLY want to go to a college with an amazing marching band. Duke in North Carolina would be nice. They have an amazing band that's quite well known; but that's an overly expensive private school. I don't have the money for that. I don't mind too much though, as sometimes in band we "devil up our hats", which refers to the way the Blue Devils marching band wears (or wore, I'm not exactly sure) their marching hats. They pull the brims way down so that no one can see their eyes, which sometimes does look better than having the brim more upwards. Where do the Blue Devils march? Mostly at their home football games. They do the halftime shows- see pictures here. In our band, we wear our hats so that you can fit 2 fingers between the brim and the bridge of your nose in parades. But coming back to school, my only requirements for now are:
A. that the school has a good band, and...
B. that the school has a good academic program.
I have yet to find somewhere that meets these criteria, but I'll find one, I'm sure.
But basically, marching band is a fun thing that gives us something to do over the summer. It's LOTS of fun!

The good old summer time- when marching band was the hardest thing.